Who Are The 24 Elders?

Q. Do you have anything on who the 24 Elders are? I am studying a booklet by a former pastor of a church I grew up in and he holds they are some form of pre-creation angels who rule the affairs of earth. This seem to me to smell of new age thinking and does not sit easily so I am researching at present so as to try and bring him some truth.

A. These 24 elders confuse some people, but they shouldn’t. Their appearance gives them away. They have thrones, so they’re rulers. They surround the Throne of God, so they’re assisting Him. They’re seated, so their work is done. They’re dressed in white, so they’re righteous. They’re wearing the Greek “stephanos” crown, so they’re victors, over comers. They’re called Elders, a title associated more with Christianity than Judaism. So far we have a pretty strong case for them representing the Church. But there’s more.

Throughout the Bible there are a number of “peak-to-peak” prophecies, as Clarence Larkin began calling them over 100 years ago. They take in the first and second comings in a single passage, sometimes in a single sentence. He likened them to mountain peaks between which was a valley, hidden from the prophet’s view. A couple of the best known are Isaiah 9:6-7 and Daniel 9:24-27.

Each of these peak-to-peak prophecies contains a hidden span of time that lasts from the 1st Coming to the 2nd like an otherwise complete puzzle with one piece missing. The Church Age is always the missing piece. In the Bible there are a total of 24 of them, each with a gap where the Church fits, the same number as the elders surrounding God’s Throne.

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